During my years at Global Ballooning Australia I had the absolute pleasure to travel the globe with these guys. Together we spruiked Australia.com, Visit Melbourne, our regions (Visit the Great Ocean Road and Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges) and our businesses. In that order too!

It was during this time I learned to appreciate the whole concept of starting with WE. Creating smart collaborations in tourism is a significant foundation in all my tourism marketing workshops. A ‘start with WE’ approach can be applied to many industries and if delivering an outstanding custome or visitor experince is a priority, a collaborative approach is recommended.

Destination first approach was quickly discovered on our first international trade mission. There was no point in talking about our businesses as single entities without educating and inspiring our audiences and potential sellers about our destinations FIRST. Australia and benefits. Victoria and benefits. Melbourne and benefits. Region and benefits and hello, let’s talk about what you can experience with us when you’re there. That’s when it’s time to talk about your business.

Even then, there was no point in speaking about ourselves without sharing the benefits or our products as a collective experience of all the beautiful places to stay, and a visitor can do, see, eat, and drink in Melbourne and her great regions. Especially all the wonderful reasons and benefits for our visitors to stay longer 🙂

Investing in local, domestic and international roadshows, tradeshows, sales missions, presentations and joint marketing ventures to name a few was a significant investment. We were small fish in a huge pond pounding the pavement to develop our visitor experiences and crack the international market.

There are so many businesses like Go West and Aust Wine Tour Co that I have grown to love and watch them grow over the years. Once small, now internationally recognised, industry leading ambassadors.

A key insight from my Tourism Hub Podcast conversation with Charles Davidson from Peninsula Hot Springs – it takes time to grow a business.

It takes time to grow a brand.

It takes time to grow a following.

It takes time to grow visitors to your website.

It takes time to work out what the heck you’re doing.

Let your passion drive you.

Stay on your game and persevere.
This type of social proof from Trip Advisor is one of the best types of recognitions for any business and I just want to take the time to recognise these businesses.

It’s a testament to the Go West and Aust Wine Tour Co teams for their insane consistency to deliver excellence, insane hard work, insane contribution and insane dedication to continually grow their business, grow their industry and help develop the regions that they play in! Congratulations, very proud of you both! xo

About Despina:

Thank you so much for reading this article. Ignite excellence in people is the reason I get out of bed in the morning, and that is the reason my training and mentoring practice InstituteofExcellence.com exists. I help the experience makers of the small to medium business communities use the power of online tools, tips and strategies to grow their business. This is done via face to face group and one on one training and live online tutorials, delivering a combination of digital marketing, social media and tourism marketing specific business development outcomes.